We Are Not Shocked That Most People Injured By Fireworks Get Hurt Around The 4th Of July

Obvious or not, when it comes to fiery objects it’s always better to be extra safe than sorry, right? But in case you weren’t sure when there would be a large surge in fireworks-related injuries, a survey from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission found that most fireworks injuries happened during the month of the July 4th holiday.

While we’re all excited to be “Yay America!” during Independence Day festivities, it’s important to remember what puts the fire in fireworks — um, fire. Hot, burning fire. So try to be extra careful.

The survey conducted last year from June 17 to July 17 found that 65% of all fireworks injuries occurred within the month of the 4th of July. Four people were killed and over 9,600 people across the nation were injured by either professional-grade or homemade fireworks.

“For thousands of consumers, last year’s 4th of July celebration ended with a visit to the emergency room,” CPSC Chairman Inez Tenenbaum said in a press release. “CPSC wants you to understand the risks with legal and illegal fireworks, in order to prevent an injury, or worse, during this holiday.”

The most common injury seems to be burns to the hands and fingers, with adults ages 20-44 most likely to get injured. Men hurt themselves with the things they can set off themselves — firecrackers, sparklers, bottle rockets, novelty devices, Roman candles, and reloadable shells — while women were usually injured at public firework displays.

Comments

Edit Your Comment

Some bastards were popping fireworks at 12midnight last night. Listen up, parents! Just because you have brats/punks that are home for summer now doesn’t mean that the rest of us have to put up with their crap. Their lucky I didn’t call the cops.

The people who live down the hill from us keep setting off fireworks mid-evening, which would be okay if it wasn’t right in the middle of my kids’ bedtime. It’s been going on for over a week, and it’s more nights than not. I’ve heard exchanges with closer neighbors threatening to call the cops, which has had zero impact.

If they are doing it mid-evening, there isn’t a whole lot the cops are going to be able to do regardless of your kids bedtime unless they are doing something illegal. That really depends on the state laws for fireworks which most people are extremely misinformed about I’ve found.

However, they aren’t going to tell whoever is setting them off to stop just because your kids are sleeping. Otherwise I’m starting a campaign to stop all diesel and construction trucks from driving down the highway in the morning when I was working till 5am.

I’m in Pennsylvania, where much beyond sparklers and party poppers are illegal. I’ve had my own experiences with illegal fireworks when I was a kid, and I’m not big on bringing in the cops and causing hostility for a relatively minor annoyance. I’m of the opinion that there’s not much the cops can or will do regardless. Consider my earlier post harmless venting.

That would be because fireworks shot off at that time, assuming they’re legal in your state, don’t violate any noise ordinances, etc. But even if they aren’t legal, the cops have a lot more important things to do than worry about keeping it quiet in MID-EVENING for kids’ beddy-bye time.

As a kid, I loved fireworks, but never got to set them off. They were illegal where I grew up. Regardless, my father would have kicked our asses if he caught us lighting fireworks. These days, fireworks scare the living crap out of me. I will not set them off and get annoyed at the neighbor’s kids when they do. Yup, I’m old.

Same here. I used to grow up in a place where fireworks start at the cusp of Christmas season, ending a week after New Year’s. I’ve had seen douche kids who just like to throw the smaller, noisy fireworks at the sidewalks without a care for whoever is walking past, and I HATE being startled. And there’s also groups in a circle who light bigger ones in the middle — those that go off loud as a gunshot.

I really detest noise-making fireworks. I’m more for the visual, colorful ones that I can watch and enjoy without leaving my ears ringing.

PA law prohibits selling fireworks to PA residents. But it’s legal to sell to non-PA residents.
NY law prohibits sale/possession/use of fireworks if you’re not licensed.
Current status: there are lots of fireworks stores in PA near the NY border. NY residents go to PA, buy the fireworks legally, then transport them back to NY, where they become illegal as soon as they cross the border. But there’s no way to control that.

(This may be revenge for when NY drinking age was 18. PA residents under 21 would drive to NY, drink, then drive back to PA drunk.)

I don’t have a problem with fireworks and think they SHOULD be legal. Yes, dumb people do stupid things. A teenager in Tampa just accidentally killed himself playing Russian Roulette with a few friends and a loaded gun. I have no doubt that if it weren’t that, he would have found some other asinine way to injure/maim/kill himself. Probably with fireworks.

Fireworks in Florida are generally verboten, UNLESS you’re buying them for agricultural purposes (ie: scaring off wildlife from crops). So, walk into the local fireworks store, tell them you’ve got crows eating your corn, and the wonderful world of fireworks is yours to play with.

If you don’t know how to safely use them, ASK. Seems simple enough to me.

I’ll be launching mortars again this year, as I’ve done every year since I was a teen. Still using the same remote ignition system we’ve always used.

Can’t shoot them off in town, usually, but that doesn’t stop the redneck horde around here. We’ve had this awful heat wave drying everything out. Last night parts of the city (including me) got a tremendous thunderstorm, but the forecast is for hot and dry again. Since we’re below normal on rain, I think they should ban them altogether. But the Butthurt Crowd will still shoot them off. I’m way more worried about fires than about some asshat getting hurt.

I want your rain. We have a county wide burn ban. They even banned grilling. That illegal chicken tasted good from the middle of my 24ft by 24 ft concrete patio. If they had the nerve to ticket me I would have been happy to stand in front of the county judge as an act of civil disobedience.

Fubish says: I don't know anything about it, but it seems to me...says:

When I was around 11-years old I had a wicked crush on an 11-year old girl named Mary Jane. One 4th of July I was trying to impress her by lighting and tossing around 4-inch firecrackers. When I lit and tossed up one of these things it fell in back of me and exploded and lit off a string of chinese firecrackers that was hanging out of the back pocket of my shorts. I remember running around while these bastards went off and finally running home in my smoking shorts where my old man hosed me down. I was about 20-years old when Mary Jane could finally look me in the face without busting out laughing. The bitch.

Hey, the only time I take issue with people being hurt or killed by fireworks, or anything else for that matter, is when they’re an innocent party to the whole thing. When it’s self-inflicted, just let them be. Natural selection is the only hope we have for the future of humanity. Judging by the popularity of reality TV and the admiration of bubbled-headed, celebrity “party girls”, it’s not going well so far. We need all the help we can get.

Never tape the head of more then 6 bottle rockets together as number 7 will not stage and only cause it to tip back at you where they will begin to explode at your feet. Thus was created the dance of the 7 bottle rockets. And yes Dave I am thinking about you laughing your ass off at me and am sending you a link to this. lol